From the Far Eastern Economic Review

WHILE TAIWAN'S ANNUAL graduation parties sound as raucous as ever, this year there's a note of fear and uncertainty underlying the loud music and shrieks of laughter. Employment prospects for fresh graduates are looking extremely bleak. Although a high percentage of men will go into compulsory military service, the rest are looking at an unemployment rate which is the highest since records began.

"There was definitely more nervousness this year," says Simon Juan, director of candidate recruitment for 104 Job Bank, an on-line recruitment agency in Taiwan. "People with no experience are having an especially hard time compared to a year ago. Even some experience--a year or two--helps."

The unemployment rate stood at 4.22% in May, the highest percentage since government statisticians started tracking the data in 1978. That figure is expected to rise further over the next few months as new graduates join the workforce. Officials estimate that nearly one in ten young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are out of work.

According to a recent survey carried out by Juan's company, 52% of companies currently don't have any hiring plans. The survey, which covered 330 companies and 1,500 jobseekers, also found that there were only 0.46 jobs for every job hunter in April, compared with 1.06 last October.

Some of the new recruits will be absorbed by family businesses. And an increasing number of young Taiwanese are working in mainland China. But even across the Taiwan Strait, many corporate vacancies stipulate 3-5 years of experience.

Juan says that students began their job search as early as March this year, though the usual time is around mid-May. Andy Lee, a careers counsellor for Tunghai University in Taichung, says his final-year students started their search as early as January.

Bruce Yeh is one of many young people concerned about his prospects. The 23-year-old graduated this month with a degree in business administration from the prestigious Fu Jen Catholic University. Exempted from military service for medical reasons, Yeh has been combing the classifieds and surfing the Internet for a job in the travel industry.

Yeh can expect to earn a basic salary of around $9,000 a year--at the higher end of the scale for new graduates. "My friend got a job at the Hsinchu Science Park paying more than $10,000 a year and he was ecstatic," says Yeh. "The pay is low because the job requirements are low. Employers are not worried about finding people, and have a lot of options now."

BUYER'S MARKET
Joanne Chyou, human-resources director for Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, says she had a lot of hiring choices because of recent layoffs. Chyou said the recent economic climate has allowed her to hire entry-level account executives with a couple of years' experience instead of fresh graduates. American Express Human Resources Director Patrick Wu hires between 20 and 30 college graduates a year and pays them nearly $12,000 a year for entry-level positions in customer service and client services. He recently advertised for an executive secretary in a local newspaper, and received around 100 applications.

A weak economy and the restructuring of state enterprises through privatization and mergers are the main reasons for the slack labour market. Around 300,000 people in state-owned enterprises have already lost their jobs, and the government has refused to rule out further layoffs in the next few months. Local banks are being encouraged to seek mergers and acquisitions, which often entail job cuts. 

For young people in Taiwan, it's going to be a long, hot summer.